Cardiac antenatal clinic

Pregnancy places a unique stress upon the heart and women with cardiac disease require specialist advice regarding family planning, and specialist supervision throughout pregnancy, delivery and post-partum.

Because of the increasing number of women of child-bearing age with congenital heart disease (CHD) entering adulthood we now have increasing numbers of patients with CHD becoming pregnant. Two-thirds of patients seen in our cardiac antenatal clinic have CHD and managing the interaction between their often complex hearts and the changes during pregnancy and childbirth is challenging. We also see women with acquired heart disease and inherited cardiac conditions.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH) recommend that pregnant women with heart disease are seen in joint clinics, where each patient is reviewed by a multi-disciplinary team consisting of an obstetrician, cardiologist, anaesthetist and midwife. In Bristol, we provide the Gold standard model of care. We see patients from all over the South West in our all day twice-monthly clinic on the first and third Fridays of the month in St Michael's Hospital in the Antenatal Clinic on Level E. Here women can have consultations with all specialists, midwives, ECG, echo and fetal ultrasound. In addition, we have a formal monthly meeting where all cases are discussed. A delivery plan is formulated is then filed in the mother's delivery notes and on the Central Delivery Suite.

The Team